Getting %username% environment variable to work in applications default file path

[hal]

I am running an AD environment on 2000 advanced servers with MS Office
2000 (XP and W2K machines), and would like to be able to get it so
users can sit down at a workstation, log in with their domain
username, and get their office apps to default to \home\%username% so
we don't have to set default paths on each client machine. When you
try to enter in the path in the app it errors and will not accept the
env variable. It will only allow you to hardcode the path to a known
directory. Anyone know of a workaround to get this more portable and
convenient for the user ?

thanks,

Hal

 

[J-P Roberts]

I am running an AD environment on 2000 advanced servers with MS Office
2000 (XP and W2K machines), and would like to be able to get it so
users can sit down at a workstation, log in with their domain
username, and get their office apps to default to \home\%username% so
we don't have to set default paths on each client machine. When you
try to enter in the path in the app it errors and will not accept the
env variable. It will only allow you to hardcode the path to a known
directory. Anyone know of a workaround to get this more portable and
convenient for the user ?

thanks,

Hal

Is \home\%username% on the local machine? If so, get their logon script
to SUBST a drive to that directory (the command file will expand
%Username%) then office can use the root of the substituted drive.

If their home directory is on a network drive, use %username% when
defining their home directory, then office can save to \home (which is
now \home\%username%, if that makes sense).

If they also need to roam around each others' directories then you're
more or less stuck with the first approach.

 

[William W. Plummer]

I am running an AD environment on 2000 advanced servers with MS Office
2000 (XP and W2K machines), and would like to be able to get it so
users can sit down at a workstation, log in with their domain
username, and get their office apps to default to \home\%username% so
we don't have to set default paths on each client machine. When you
try to enter in the path in the app it errors and will not accept the
env variable. It will only allow you to hardcode the path to a known
directory. Anyone know of a workaround to get this more portable and
convenient for the user ?

Example of use: Go into a CMD box. Enter echo %username%
This should print out your username. Next, try putting this in a batch
file: @echo %username% in printuser.bat . When you run printuser ,
it will print your name. The @-sign suppresses the echo of the command
itself. Next you can experiment with redirecting the output to a file:
@echo %username%> user.txt . Then type user.txt . Use >> rather
than > if you want to append it to the file. Finally, try piping it to
another program: @echo %username% | type .

 

[David H. Lipman]

Use a Login Script Interpreter such as Kixtart (http://kixtart.org Kixtart is CareWare)

Also you should be mapping hidden shares to users. For example...

c:\home\lipman shared as lipman$

Then you map a drive letter such as "P:" as... net use p: %USERNAME%$

Simple.

Dave



| I am running an AD environment on 2000 advanced servers with MS Office
| 2000 (XP and W2K machines), and would like to be able to get it so
| users can sit down at a workstation, log in with their domain
| username, and get their office apps to default to \home\%username% so
| we don't have to set default paths on each client machine. When you
| try to enter in the path in the app it errors and will not accept the
| env variable. It will only allow you to hardcode the path to a known
| directory. Anyone know of a workaround to get this more portable and
| convenient for the user ?
|
| thanks,
|
| Hal
|
|
|
|
|